


Why do stray cats follow me?

by Kadhi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Lovesquare, Lukanette, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, Other, Self-Acceptance, Slow Burn, Strong Marinette Dupain-Cheng, adrigami
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23375068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kadhi/pseuds/Kadhi
Summary: Quick answer from Quora: They will follow you because they feel you do not pose a threat to them and... they are likely hungry for food.This story is based immediately after season 3 finale. It includes sweet Lukanette after the river scene in the season finale, sweet Adrigami after Kagami mentioned that the only person she is afraid to hurt is Marinette, Lila being Lila after Adrien's threat in the photo shoot on 'Ladybug' episode. Chloe being Chloe after trying to be Miracle Queen, Nathalie's health and more... It's basically a slow burn MariChat because it is what seems more realistic to me for the lovesquare after the season finale.And of course, Marinette learning how to be a Guardian!
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first long fic here. It is a slow slow slooow burn MariChat fic. Placed after season three final. Yup, just in the middle of the messy Lukanette and Adrigami. This is my trying-to-be-realistic version of Marinette growing up as a Guardian and facing the perks of being a teenager.

The only sound in the room was Tikki chewing her cookies while looking at her holder. Marinette had already taken down Adrien’s pictures from the walls, changed her desktop background and put her 50 gifts for Adrien’s next birthdays in a box to donate to charity.

Today she was a new woman. It was time to move on. She had one million other things between her hands, starting by her new Guardian role, as to be wasting her time with heart breaks and childish plans on how to woo guys.

She wasn’t in the mood to have a boyfriend or pursuit a relationship. Something like that requires time she didn’t have and a commitment that she couldn’t make because her top priority will always be to save Paris, to keep the miraculous safe and to study more than ever about the Guardian role, as Fu was no longer in the picture.

Part of this was her fault. She was the only culprit as why Fu was caught in the first place. Looking for him while in disguise was an error and she needed to assume it and forgive herself. But the reason behind that was that she was so jealous, so distracted and unfocused on the mission because she saw Adrien almost kissing Kagami, that she did a huge mistake. And she had to live with it. Embrace it and learn from it in order to grow.

She can’t let something like that to happen again.

She needed to shut down that part of herself. And she already decided she will do.

“Okay, done.”

“Are you sure about this, Marinette?” Marinette was putting the lucky charm Adrien gave her for her birthday in the same box where the magazines he appeared on and the unsent letters she wrote confessing her love were at.

“Of course, Tikki. I don’t have time for this. Hawkmoth is getting stronger each day and I need to think of a strategy to take him down soon. After that I will probably have time to focus on my love life again”

“Marinette, I know you are young. But I had lived longer than you and you need to know this: Love comes unannounced. You can’t decide to just close the door, it will find its way through a window.”

“If it arrives, it arrives. But I won’t be pursuing it any longer. It’s hard and it makes me stupid and prone to embarrassments I don’t want to keep having. I’m clumsy enough without the extra mess in my head, Tikki” Marinette sat down in her divan, holding Tikki between her hands and giving her a smile.

“You’ve matured a lot lately, Marinette. I’m sorry this is happening to you being so young.”

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m glad I’m Ladybug, I’m glad to have you in my life. Together we will defeat Hawkmoth and restore the order once again.” 

Both were suddenly startled by a noise in the rooftop. It was like a flowerpot breaking. She hopped to the trap door and put her head out. It was dark so she needed a few seconds to adjust but she finally saw it as clear as day. A kitty was smelling the soil from the broken pot. It was gray with a white tail and big blue eyes. She breathed out resigned, the kitty broke her attempt to grow Asian Greens this summer.

“Thanks Kitty, I’ll need to start again.”

With the sound of her voice the kitty disappeared as fast as his shorty legs let him. “Thanks for the quick visit, though” Sarcastically, she went up to clean a little bit. Tomorrow she will need to buy a new pot after school.

Separating the roots and the broken pieces from the soil, Marinette said: “Well, you know what they say: Never is too late to start again”


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened at school after Miracle Queen? What happened after Marinette returned to the school thanks to the little chat between Adrien and Lila?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no this chapter doesn't have MariChat yet..., but this is a MariChat story! I promise!!

“Hey girl, Mylène is inviting us to her house for a pizza party. Are you free tonight?” Alya whispered lowing her head so Ms. Mendeleiev couldn’t notice them talking.

“Sorry Alya, I have plans with my mom. Lately, she has been very interested in to teach me how to cook Asian food”  


“I heard Luka is invited”  


Marinette smiled at her friend “Still no”  


Ms. Mendeleiev let her rule hit the desk to catch the girls’ attention and warned them with her eyes. Both immediately stopped the little chatting. But Alya was not an easy quitter. 

After a while she passed a note to Marinette. “ _Everybody saw how Luka played a song to you the other day by the river. You were clearly enjoying it. Do I need to beg for details? Because I’m going to beg_ ”

Marinette wrote down a quick response “ _Let’s have this conversation later_ ”  


“ _You have been avoiding the topic for the past 4 days, girl. Even I have a limit._ ”  


“ _Maybe I don’t know what to say?_ ”  


“ _Ok, you asked for it. Just reply to the questions I know I want to know: 1) Are you going to give away all the gifts you made in advance? 2) Have you already kissed Luka?_ ”  


“ _Yes. No._ “  


“ _Do you want to kiss him?_ ”  


“ _I don’t know. Maybe, if the moment is right. I won’t push it or pursuit it, though_ ”  


“ _Do you find sexy he is older? >o<_”  


“ _It’s actually refreshing how mature he is. It’s easy to have conversations with him. Hard to believe he’s just a year older._ ”  


Alya let out a little chuckle, she was about to write another question when she felt Mendeleiev presence next to her. “Can I have that paper, Miss Césaire?

Before Alya could react, Ms Mendeleiev was already reading the paper and Marinette was close to fainting **.** Alya’s face was pale as a ghost, but she still tried to beg for mercy.

“Please don’t read it out loud Ms Mendeleiev, I was the one pushing it.”  


Adrien and Nino turn on their sits to watch the scene, along the rest of the class that was paying full attention to both girls. Rapidly increasing Marinette’s anguish.

“That I can see, Miss Césaire. Miss Dupain-Cheng next time avoid replying to this kind of conversations during class. Older boys can be attractive but that has nothing to do with Bohr’s Model of the Atom. Clear?”  


Marinette was completely ashamed, the louder the class’ whistles, the brighter the red tone of her face. “Clear”.

Adrien smiled softly to her, and she wanted to die right there.

And it was the first class of the day.

━━━━━━━━※━━━━━━━━

To Marinette’s misfortune, Nino and Adrien joined them for lunch.

Alya stopped her apologies when the boys approached them. A best friend job is to know the last person Marinette wanted gossiping about the morning incident was Adrien.

Of course, the blond didn’t even try to mention a thing.

“So, Mari, who-ough” And when Nino tried to bring up the topic, Alya silenced him with a stomp and a fresh new conversation.

“So, learning Asian cook?” She shamelessly ignored Nino’s complaints.  


“Yes, my mom says I’m almost seventeen and that I should be self-sufficient, know more about my culture and not starve to death in case she’s out”  


“But Mari, you literally _live_ on top of a bakery and you know how to do literally _every_ pastry there” Nino managed to say, foot pain already forgotten.  


“I guess _‘Woman does not live by bread alone’_ is strong on this mom”  


“And what’s she teaching you?” Adrien asked.  


Marinette did her best to reply as a normal person. It was a little bit easier every day. “Little bit of everything, I already know how to do a basic fried rice but today I’m going to explore the wonders of stir-fried beef.”  


“Whenever you learn how to do Kung Pao chicken, sign me up!”  


“You want to learn how to do it, Alya?”  


“Nope, but I will surely have Kung Pao chicken hungry that day. Trust me, I have my sources.”  


The four of them laughed together and Mari promised to bring everybody a portion whenever she learns. Lunch was somehow relaxing until a non-invited presence appeared at the table. 

“So, Mari, tell me, who is the lucky guy? Are you head over heels for an older boy? Naughty!” Obviously, Lila appeared just when everything was ok in her world. She did not hide the discomfort on her face.  


Surprisingly, it was not Marinette who cut her off.

“Aren’t we being a little bit rude, Lila?”  


Four pair of eyes were on Adrien, who was not smiling, not joking, not looking at her, just stating a fact while cleaning his lips with a napkin. He was already done with lunch.

Marinette was maybe the most surprised of them.

Lila was not surprised at all. Last time she talked to the blond he let clear that he was putting his limits where Marinette discomfort started. She even had to lie to bring her back to school anyway. Honestly, she was there only to test if Adrien was capable to face her in front of others as well. Looks like the answer was yes.

“I was just joking Adrien” she giggled a little, “since you are all so close to Marinette I supposed all of you already knew about the mysterious guy. But I don’t want to upset her more, I did already too much last week and I apologize again Marinette” this time she was looking directly at her blue eyes, with a puppy face “I can’t control my disease but I will leave immediately to not bother you anymore”.  


“You are not bothering Lila, but we were already leaving” Alya stood up, followed by the other three “Class is just about to start”.

“Oh, sure, let’s go” Lila followed them and engaged a conversation with Nino and Alya.  


Marinette and Adrien were walking side by side in front of them, in silence. Each of them immersed on their own thoughts.

━━━━━━━━※━━━━━━━━

“Hella weird, girl” Marinette had Alya on video chat on the rooftop. She was planting the Asian Greens in her new flowerpot. Alya was getting ready for the pizza party.  


“It was just… so sudden? He is not like that” Marinette was still surprised by Adrien standing up for her. She didn’t know how to feel about it, or what to think.  


“Yeah, I mean, I thought they were friends. His dad even helped her to get her first model job… Which pants do you think look better on me?” Alya showed two options to the camera.  


“The blue one.”  


“Maybe Adrien realized he has a crush on you after you were expelled, you know. Realizing he won’t be close to you again and that. Deal breaker feelings.”  


Marinette let out a dry laugh “Impossible Alya, you know he likes Kagami. You saw them.”  


“But explain why he was suddenly so aggressive on your behalf.”  


“Maybe he has spent a little too much time with Lila and now he sees who she really is”  


Alya was a little more on board to Marinette’s side after she heard Lila’s excuse. It was a super sad story, granted, but Marinette was in her full right to stay as far as possible from a friendship with her. Even if everything was solved the next day with Lila’s apologize. “Maybe Mr. Sunshine resembles more his father than we originally thought. His voice was so cold that it caused me shivers.”

“Maybe.”  


“So, what about the gifts?”  


“Not delivered yet” and Marinette gave her a sincere smile “Luka will help me to carry them on his bicycle tomorrow after school.”  


“I like Luka, you know. I approve him, in my best friend position.”  


“Not that I asked your permission, though! Or that anything is going on!”  


“You obviously don’t need to ask for permission, it’s all wrapped in the best friend package.”  


“ _Marinette, honey, it’s time!”_ Sabine’s voice called her from the distance.  


“Guess this is the goodbye. Shame you can’t come to the party.”  


“I’ll go to the next one, I promise. Bye”  


“Alya out”  


Marinette sighed. She just wanted to fall into bed and sleep until tomorrow. Too many mixed feelings were bubbling inside herself.

But she couldn’t let her mom down. “Coming mom!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback appreciated :) ❤️


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did Marinette get rid of the gifts she made for Adrien? And what happened to Nathalie after the season finale?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me. I know this pointing to a Lukanette, but bear with me... This is a slow burn MariChat story after all :).
> 
> (I'm just trying to be coherent with that season 3 finale! We can't ignore Luka was there when Marinette needed him the most)

Adrien’s day had been tired so far. It started at 6 am with Gorilla waking him up.

“Where’s Nathalie?” He said, with his eyes still semi closed.

“... Not coming today.” 

Adrien had a well-balanced, lonely, and healthy breakfast. At 7 am he was already in Pont de Bir-Hakeim for the ‘City Life Collection’ photo shoot of this year. Vincent was talking to the Art Director about locations and special lighting for the shoots when he spotted him.

“Adrien, you’re already here! Go to make up and dress yourself up with combo number 4 first.”

Walking to the dresser he saw Lila with the hair stylist and saluted them from afar. He already knew she was going to be there. For some reason unknown to him, his father agreed on three photo shoots with her. This was barely the second. And because she was good at it, it wouldn’t surprise him that she will eventually sign up for more.

Six long hours passed, and they were done. To celebrate, everyone in the set ate lunch together. Lila was stuck by his side and he didn’t push her off, to be fair, she wasn’t doing anything wrong to anyone that day, so he tried (and failed) to have fun as well. He meant it when he talked to her: they could be ‘friends’ but there was a limit to how much he will be able to endure, specifically if she insisted on hurting his friends. 

"Adrien, do you want to go to somewhere else and enjoy the rest of the day with me?”

“Thank you, Lila, but I can’t”

“If it is because of your father, maybe I can talk to him?”

“I had plans with Nino today, but they got cancelled because Father wants me to practice a new song for an upcoming event. I don’t think his opinion will change.”

“Oh... okay, later then.”

Adrien entered his car without offering her a ride, Gorilla closed the door and Adrien lowered down the window. “Yes, later. Have a nice day, Lila”

“Bye!” Lila said and Gorilla started the engine and the car moved away from her, who kept waving goodbye until they disappeared in the next corner. 

And it was true. Nino wanted to show him how to breakdance and he really wanted to learn, he didn’t specify with his father about the plans, but Gabriel Agreste had a sixth sense when it comes to letting him have fun with friends. Suddenly the day before he was informed that there will be an event host by the Tsurugi family next month and he was supposed to play a couple songs during the evening: “Painted” and “River Flows in You”, both from Yiruma. 

He already knew the second one by heart. It was one of her mother’s favorites.

So, he returned to the mansion and started to practice the first one. For the first two hours he was practicing seriously. The third hour he recorded himself to create a loop that would be played later when Chat Noir went out to play. 

Gorilla appeared at his door around two hours and a half later to give him some food. He returned the empty dishes just before going out. His recording had a very elaborate edit of his very best try, looped three times, and then a couple recordings with errors here and there. If his father came when the errors were being played, he won’t disturb. If he went when the recording was sounding perfect and realize he still was playing, he won’t interrupt neither. Nobody will enter his room in the next 3 hours, probably. It was almost 5 pm.

“Plagg, claws...”

“Wait!” Plagg interrupted him mid-sentenced.

“Plagg?”

“First you shush me because you are recording and now you suddenly transform without saying a word? What happened to your manners kid?”

“Sorry Plagg, but I didn’t have any recording of that song, and I really wanted to go out.”

Plagg was still playing hard. Floating with both arms crossed in front of Adrien’s face “Where are we going today?”

“I don’t know... anywhere else but here.” Plagg was still with his tiny arms crossed, clearly upset for being ignored. “But I’m sorry bud, do you want extra cheese before going out today? Or do you want to stay? We can play video games if you want.”

Adrien would probably never realize how much Plagg loved him. He dropped his arms and decided to go lie down to the blonde’s head so he couldn’t see his face. Adrien moved something inside Plagg with his suggestion to stay home to make him, the God of Destruction, feel better when clearly Adrien just wanted to run away. “Nah, I ate the emergency supplies when you were recording. I’m fine if I got three extra cheeses when we return”

Adrien pet Plagg’s head over his head with a smile “You are incorrigible buddy. Plagg, claws out!”

━━━━━━━━※━━━━━━━━

To be honest, she woke up that morning thinking that her day was going to be exhausting.

But here she was, smiling, hugging Luka’s back on the way home, resting her head on him. Both were on his bicycle, carrying an empty box behind. 

Luka smelled like lavender, probably because of the cloth softener in his house, but it recalled her freedom and peace. And she just wanted to keep hugging him all day.

It has been an awesome day so far. She woke up late but on time to meet Luka. She stayed very late the previous day dividing the gifts by types. Sweaters, scarfs, gloves, hats, everything was also divided by colors. She tagged everything, unwrapped it and put it into bags, and those bags into a box.

Luka gently carried her around Paris to deliver the clothes into a couple charities for homeless. They got lunch together by the Seine. They saw street performers by the Eiffel Tour doing brake-dance and a couple mimes playing with kids.

Luka bought her a smoothie and they walk down the Jardin des Tuileries while talking about everything and nothing at the same time.

When they passed near Notre Dame, he told her he would like to show her his new progress with her melody, so she listened quietly the 2 minutes song on a bench next to him, watching the peaceful Parisians enjoying a sunny and beautiful Saturday. 

Everything was lovely and colorful. So far, no Hawkmoth, no Chloé, no Lila, no stress, no danger. It was like a vacations day and she was up to live it full for what it last. Since the moment she opened her eyes she was waiting for the next akumatized person to show up and change her plans, but it was already 4:00 pm and Luka was successfully distracting her from her own thoughts.

Luka never asked her why she had so much male clothes, and even that small detail gave her peace at mind. He didn’t judge, he just listened. 

There was a moment in which she was startled by a purple butterfly on Notre Dame. He immediately put himself on between them, with a fierce determination. But it was a regular butterfly. They laughed together by the realization but laughs stopped when he hugged her.

“I promise I will protect you with all I have if Hawkmoth dare to attack today”

And Marinette knew it was true, he has already done it after all, jumping to protect her from the bees last time. If Luka haven’t done that, who knows what would have happened to her that day.

It made Marinette immediately sad. It was horrible to know that thanks to Chloé: Luka will never be Viperion again, Alya couldn’t be Rena, Max couldn’t be Pegasus, Kim couldn’t be Roi Singe, Kagami shouldn’t be Ryuuko and Nino couldn’t be Carapace.

Of course, Luka thought she was suddenly sad because Marinette was scared for him. He caressed her cheek. “Don’t be sad, Marinette. If there’s something I’m scared of is not Hawkmoth, but to not being able to cheer you up when you are distressed”

Marinette hid her face in his chest.

“You want to talk about it?” He asked, softly.

“What do you think will happen if Hawkmoth wins?” she mumbled.

“That won’t happen. Paris has the best heroes on earth.”

“But what if” she insisted.

Luka meditated his answer for a couple seconds “Then everybody in Paris will help Ladybug and Chat Noir to get a proper revenge. If Hawkmoth ‘wins’ I’m sure everybody will fight along with them to help them restore everything back. Including us both. Am I right?”

Marinette let a little giggle escape her lips. “But of course, Luka”

“I can imagine you as a hero you know, brave, smart, beautiful”

Marinette blushed immediately “Ugh... stop. Don’t exaggerate”

“I am not!” he said, kissing her forehead. Marinette’s heart skipped a beat. “You will probably overshadow Ladybug. At least to my eyes.”

She didn’t immediately reply to that. She was feeling too many butterflies in her belly and even her neck was probably red right now. She covered her face with her hands and mumbled a quiet “Thank you”.

Luka released her from the hug and got on his bicycle again “Let’s go, I don’t want your parents to think I kidnapped you.”

And really, time flies. How come she already spent 8 hours with Luka without noticing it?

So here she was. In her way home, hugging Luka’s back and smiling while mumbling the melody he played for her a couple hours ago. Since the last battle she has spent countless hours talking to Tikki and the other kwamis, studying, learning about history and her new role responsibilities and thinking about strategies. She had been holding quite difficult discussions in her room lately. And she didn’t even have the chance to talk to Chat Noir yet.

So, it felt good to be able to relax today. She didn’t realize she needed a moment of peace that much.

She also didn’t notice Chat Noir jumping from rooftop to rooftop, but he did spot them and gave them a sincere smile from afar.

“Hey, Luka”

Marinette called him from behind when they were a couple streets from her home.

“Yes? Do you want me to stop?”

“No, just change directions please”

“Change directions? Where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere” She hugged him stronger. “If it is okay. I just want to stay a little more with you today. Just one more hour.”

Luka’s heart shrank and he almost lost control of the bicycle by Marinette sudden comment.

“Do you want to see the sunset from Sacre Coeur?” He asked.

“I would love to”

━━━━━━━━※━━━━━━━━

Adrien arrived home before anyone noticed it and went downstairs to have dinner at the same time as always. His dad was unexpectedly waiting for him at the table. 

“Father? What are you doing here?”

“I have some news to share with you, Son” Gabriel asked him to take a sit with his hand. Someone from the service staff served him a plate with onion soup, toasted bread and a glass of water.

When they were alone, his father started conversation again “As you know, Nathalie have not been feeling well lately”

“Is she sick again?” Adrien was looking at his food with a sad look. Something that was stressing him out lately was how much Nathalie’s condition resembled his mom’s.

“Yes, but there’s good news on that regard” Adrien raised his gaze with a hint of hope. “A doctor found out what was happening to her. She will be out for three weeks for recovery, but she will be cured”

“Really? That’s awesome!” Adrien stood up with energy and a smile from side to side, truly excited for the good news “What did she had?”

“Something related to her inner ear, which explains the dizziness. A minor surgery fixes it”

“Can we go and visit her?”

“She prefers not to. But you are welcome to find a gift if you want, for when she returns” His father kept his gaze busy on his tablet, probably still working.

“I will do it, thanks, Father”

━━━━━━━━※━━━━━━━━

When Marinette closed the door of her room, Tikki flew in front of her with a smile.

“Marinette, did you have fun today?” 

“Yes!” Marinette ran to the divan and laid there hugging a cat pillow, while giggling “Today was great, Tikki. I think I didn’t have this much fun in a while.”

“I’m glad” Tikki sat above the cat pillow.

“But as fun as the day was today,” Marinette sat down, letting the pillow aside and holding Tikki on her hands “We have work to do.” She climbed up the stairs of her bed and pull out the miraculous box out of her hidden spot. 

She opened it and took the panjas bracelet, put it on and Roarr appeared in front of her. “Hi Guardian! Is it my turn today?”

Marinette giggled at the little kwami “Hello there, would you please be as nice as to help me to know you better?”

“I like peanuts!” Roarr answered fast “I don’t like when the weak is abused, I’m very protective” 

“I know you can control the lighting of a place and reflect yourself to camouflage” Marinette was taking notes “I also know you take most of the decisions with Sass back in the box when Tikki and Plagg are out”.

“I have had only 13 permanent holders. Nothing compared to the others, so I’ve stayed most of my time taking care of the world inside the box”

“By what circumstances have you been handled to permanent holders?”

“I was stolen 4 times, 7 times I was needed to hide the order of the guardians, 1 time the guardian of the box preferred my powers to fulfill his job, you know, like Master Fu with Wayzz, and one time the Guardian of the box preferred the Pig miraculous, and give my miraculous to his lover so I can help to keep the box safe with her.”

Marinette stopped writing. “What?”

“What, what?”

“A Guardian share this secret with his lover?! Who was it?”

“It was many, many centuries ago” Roarr jumped from Marinette’s hand to her hair “The guardian was married when he was appointed to the task and he decided that the way to keep his family protected was to share the secret with Abelia.”

“Was it a good idea?”

“Many tragedies overcome his family. I know Abelia didn’t regret any.”

They chatted a bit more, Marinette did a pause to get her some peanuts, she showed her the room and what she liked to do and finally they wish each other sweet dreams after a couple hours of getting to know each other.

It was already after midnight and Marinette was already laid on bed when a noise called her attention.

“Ugh... again?”  
She popped her head out and saw a watering can spinning on the floor. It stopped and a little kitty walked out there. 

“What are you doing inside there, little buddy?” It was a brown kitty, smaller than the one she saw the other day, but this time the kitty didn’t run away the moment he heard her. It walked to the watering can again, searching for something. Marinette saw how he started to lick the metal, so she went out and pour him some water in a flowerpot base she saw near him.

The kitty followed her and started to drink water “Were you thirsty little one?” She couldn’t help it and pet his head a little. “Such a cutie”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
